13 things to steer clear of while trying for a baby

Fertility is a highly complex science, implicating sperm health, egg health, lifestyle, and genetic inheritance. To that end, it can be incredibly reassuring to know what things could be harmful to your reproductive health.

By understanding the following research-backed guidelines, you can feel more confident as you prepare to start a family.

Habits to drop

They say it takes between 18 and 254 days to break a habit, but trying for a baby may be reason enough to break one sooner. Letting go of the following habits can play a major role in supporting your future little one’s health:

1. Smoking – Cigarette smoke is full of chemicals that can harm fertility. From contributing to hormonal imbalances to damaging DNA in sperm, smoking cigarettes—and routinely inhaling secondhand smoke—may curb your chances of conceiving. If you or your partner smokes (or if you’re frequently around smokers), it’s a wise idea to quit.
2. Alcohol – It’s well known that imbibing while pregnant is a no-no. But frequent or excessive alcohol use can likewise interfere with hormones governing your ovulation cycles, making it that much more difficult to get pregnant. Taking a break from booze—even scaling back—can help support female fertility (as well as male fertility) and give your baby a healthier head start.
3. Other recreational drugs – Beyond tobacco and alcohol, other recreational substances are best avoided while trying for a baby. These chemicals can impair menstruation cycles in women; in men, they may diminish sperm quantity and quality. This may affect how long sperm stays in the body, which can detract from the ability to conceive. Moreover, certain drugs can have a long lifespan in your body, potentially impacting early pregnancy after you’ve realized you’re expecting.
4. Overdoing the caffeine – Generally speaking, drinking caffeinated beverages while pregnant or during pre-pregnancy isn’t considered harmful to fertility. Most people can safely enjoy up to 300mg a day without a worry. That said, if you’re a sworn caffeine lover, remember that your daily doses of coffee can quickly add up. Beyond coffee, tea, energy drinks, sodas, kombuchas, and candy bars can all be sneaky sources, so it might be a good idea to calculate how much you’re ingesting daily.
5. Overindulging food-wise – Diet plays a major role in hormonal regulation and reproductive well-being. If yours includes a significant amount of processed foods, refined sugars, or trans fats, it could impact your metabolism, blood sugar, and weight—all of which can bear on your ability to ovulate. On the flip side, being underweight can also interfere with your reproductive health.

Consulting with your healthcare provider can help you establish whether you’re in a healthy range to support a pregnancy. When in doubt, it’s helpful to focus on eating whole food-based, balanced meals, as well as reasonable portion sizes to support hormonal harmony.

Foods to reconsider

A key consideration in your fertility journey is what foods to avoid when trying to get pregnant. The food you consume in the preconception phase can set the stage for early pregnancy. Filling in nutritional gaps is why prenatal vitamins were designed: to furnish you with adequate amounts of the key nutrients you and your baby need for a healthy pregnancy.

To that end, you can help boost your chances by taking a prenatal vitamin once you start trying for a little one. You might also forgo the following foods before and during pregnancy:

1. Unpasteurized dairy – Unpasteurized (i.e., raw) milks, cheeses, and yogurts can harbor listeria and other dangerous bacteria. These can cause pregnancy loss or complications in the first trimester. Always choose pasteurized dairy options to lower your chances of exposure and keep your future little one out of harm’s way.
2. Raw meat – From tartares to your mother’s ultra-rare home-cooked steak, undercooked meat may put you at risk of contracting parasites. Ones like toxoplasma or Salmonella are particularly dicey when newly pregnant, so it may be wise to steer clear if you’re actively trying to conceive. When in doubt, choose medium to well-done meats.
3. Deli meat – Though convenient, cold cuts can also be a hotbed for listeria—particularly if they’ve been sitting in a deli display case for too long. For now and during pregnancy, it’s best to satisfy your deli sandwich craving with something like grilled chicken.
4. Raw sprouts – Though they’re used sparingly enough to appear harmless, sprouts may be best avoided pre-conception and during pregnancy. The FDA recommends leaving them off your plate, as their growth process can breed E. coli and Salmonella bacteria.
5. High-mercury fish – For those who are trying to conceive, as well as pregnant people, the Mayo Clinic advises against eating high-mercury fish. These types of fish include:
   • Swordfish
   • Shark
   • King mackerel
   • Tilefish
   • Canned chunk white tuna

While most adults don’t need to be overly cautious about their mercury consumption, high mercury levels can impair fetal brain and nervous system development. Moreover, mercury levels can accumulate in your bloodstream over time, so it’s also important to keep an eye on your intake in the months and weeks before trying to conceive.

Activities to postpone

Among the sneakier things to omit while trying to conceive are activities and routines. If you have any doubts about the potential harms of activities not mentioned below, it’s best to reach out to your healthcare provider for their expert input:

1. Saunas, hot tubs, and hot rooms – Ultra-hot environments like hot tubs, saunas, and hot studios (for yoga or Pilates classes) are generally best avoided during early pregnancy. According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, heated areas can elevate your core body temperature, which can potentially harm your developing child.
   Even if you’re not pregnant yet, it’s a good idea to keep this cautionary advice in mind if you’re a regular in these types of environments. Doing so can help you plan ahead or adapt your wellness routines in those weeks leading up to a positive pregnancy test.
2. Deep-cleaning your home – While you can certainly continue to tidy up your home, it’s important to be mindful of the chemicals you’re exposing yourself to. Certain household cleaning products like bleach, ammonia, or those with potent artificial fragrance may contain endocrine disruptors—chemicals that can interfere with healthy hormonal cycles, and ultimately compromise both male and female fertility.
   As a protective measure, be sure to wear gloves while cleaning and aim for optimal ventilation. Alternatively, you can switch to naturally-derived cleaning ingredients like baking soda and white vinegar.
3. Extreme workout plans – Exercise may improve fertility, but balance is critical here. If you’re new to working out, overexerting yourself physically can put undue stress on your body, which can throw reproductive cycles out of whack and disrupt ovulation. That said, if you’re a regular in high-intensity exercise, keeping up with your regimen won’t necessarily injure your fertility.

The takeaway? It’s best not to hard-launch your triathlon training plan when you’re preparing for a pregnancy. If you’re not a regular at the gym, aiming for at least 2 hours of physical activity weekly is ideal for your conception efforts.

When to consult a fertility specialist

If you’ve been actively trying to conceive for 1 year and still aren’t getting pregnant, a fertility specialist can help. (Those over the age of 35 who aren’t getting a positive result after 6 months might consider seeing one sooner.)

The following signs might also prompt you to seek counsel from a fertility specialist:

• Irregular menstrual cycles
• Amenorrhea (absent periods)
• Repeated pregnancy loss
• Reproductive conditions, like endometriosis or PCOS
• History of cancer or surgery, especially those impacting the reproductive system

Fertility specialists can help assess your hormones, ovarian reserve, and ovulation patterns; if your partner is male, they can also evaluate sperm health. Accordingly, they’ll be able to advise lifestyle alterations, medications, or therapies to assist you with your plan to start a family, providing reassurance and clarity along the way.

Use the SneakPeek® test to start your pregnancy with confidence

Having a baby changes everything, but does everything need to change when you’re planning for one? Not necessarily! While certain things are best avoided along your journey, many other aspects of life can simply benefit from a mindful approach.

Once you’re pregnant, get to know your little one sooner with the SneakPeek® Early Gender Test. This at-home test reveals your baby’s predicted sex earlier and more accurately than ever. With a simple blood sample, you can learn whether your little one is predicted to be a boy or a girl as soon as 6 weeks into your journey, and with over 99% clinically proven accuracy.

Try the #1 OBGYN-recommended at-home early sex prediction test and order your kit today.*

*SneakPeek recommended six to one among 100 OBGYNs survey